Specialty pizza is all around the Katy area, but one of the first restaurants to offer specialty toppings was Pizza Bella. In business since 1999, the eatery at 1306 Pin Oak Road offers 22 specialty pizzas as well as custom, made-to-order options.

"I say it's like New York-style pizza that's been to California and back," owner Hugh McNatt said. "It's got some strange toppings like walnuts and Gorgonzola cheese or artichokes. It has that old traditional New York-style, though."

Originally from Kansas, McNatt worked at a pizzeria while he attended college in Oklahoma before later moving to Texas in 1981. He enjoyed the food at Pizza Bella so much that nine years ago he took over the restaurant in 2008 after working in the oil and gas industry, he said.

"It's one of the first artisan-type pizza places that was in Katy for a long time," McNatt said. "Of course, we've got lots of those now, but for a long time it was just us."

Pizza Bella's original owners worked at a pizzeria in Portland, Oregon, before opening their own restaurant in Texas, McNatt said.

"I think they pulled some of the specialty products ideas from Portland," he said. "Those ideas were brought from the West Coast with the traditional East Coast pepperonis and sausages."

Popular pizzas at the restaurant include the Greek-inspired Puttanesca, the classic Italian Giovanni and the meat and veggie-loaded Bella Suprema, he said.

Everything at Pizza Bella is made in-house, and all pizzas are hand-tossed, McNatt said. Dough is baked every day while the sauces, desserts, salad dressings and sausage are all made by hand daily.

"Basically, the whole thing here is about being fresh," McNatt said.

The restaurant serves beer and wine as well as a daily special that includes one slice of pizza and a side salad, he said.

As the area experiences more growth, McNatt said Pizza Bella sees numerous takeout orders for customers on their way home. The restaurant also offers partially baked pizzas for customers to take home and finish baking on another day.

"It's a pretty small, intimate place," McNatt said. "We do a lot of takeout for a lot of families and a lot of couples."

Create your own pizzaPizza Bella in Katy offers several options for customers to create their own custom pizza.